Teams : Quartermasters

“If it’s not in the books, it doesn’t exist”

Quartermasters

The Quartermasters are responsible for the supplies of the outpost, making sure nothing gets lost and that they always know who has borrowed what. As scarce as resources are there can be no sloppiness. And no stuffing of stuff in ones pocket that the Outpost has a need of.

The supplies cover everything from extra clothing, protective gear, tools and equipment to weapons, ammunition and explosives. Haven learned to not let people just walk around with guns or let explosives just lay around long ago. If you need something for your work, you go requisition it form the QMs.

In theory the Quartermasters are supposed to be very strict and log everything that comes into the Outpost, but in practice there is room for a bit of trade and favours, especially between the SURFOPS or Maintenance teams that bring stuff in from the surface and the QMs. Everyone knows that sometimes a few non-essential items don’t get logged into the system, but everyone knows where the line between small time business and corruption goes. No one wants to have INTSEC come and fetch you for an Intelligence review. But as long as nobodys getting rich off the backs of someone else or critical supplies are being siphoned off everyone looks the other way. You never know when you might need that condom someone brought in from the surface, or that old dry chewing gum you’ve been eyeing for a month.

The fine balance

As quartermasters you have a big responsibility to make sure things are not lost or handed out without documentation, but you have an equally great responsibility in not being a bottleneck in the smooth operation of the Outpost.

It is also your responsibility to notify Command about changes in supplies, so that they know if scavenging missions are needed or if they need to requisition supplies from Haven.

You also have a few very important duties to perform in making sure the topside missions go smoothly.

PNQ and TAs

There are two kinds of items that people ‘own’, since no one really owns anything. There are TAs - temporarily assigned - that are items that might be of use for the collective. When someone shows up with one, you note down what it is and what it might be used for, and then they get to keep it until the collective needs it. It is Temporarily Assigned to that person. It might also be TA’d to someone else, if someone has a relevant need.

Then there are the PNQs, the valuable things tagged “Private, no consequence” in the databases. To have something marked PNQ essentially means that you own that thing, it’s the closest you’ll ever get at least. No one can take it away or requisition it unless it is somehow re-classified, which is very rare and only if new use is discovered for the material or the item. A PNQ is yours, and only yours. To have something vaguely useful but personally important classified as PNQ is a huge favor, and quite difficult, unless people have a really good connection with you as QMs.

Mission prep

Every time there is a surface mission to be executed, that squad will come to the Quartermasters to requisition gear. The most common thing being firearms, ammunition and protective gear. Guns are handed out individually (and logged into the system), as is everything else. But there are a few special tasks you need to perform for every mission that goes out, and when they return, which we will describe here (offgame):

Setting up the comms, nav and vidlink systems

Every squad going out needs to have a radio operator, the person that carries the radio and handles the communication between MISCON and the squad. You will need to make sure batteries are fully charged, that the radio is set to the correct frequency, and that the radio operator knows how to handle the radio (and to switch it back to the correct frequency in case they happen to fiddle with the knobs).

The Radio Operator should also be wearing the special Cam Helmet, which has an IR light and an IR sensitive camera attached to it. Once again you need to make sure the battery pack for the camera is charged, as well as the battery for the IR light.

Finally, there are two smartphones that also need to be charged and connected to the battery pack. Finally you need to check that the smartphone is set to Mobile Data, that it has its WiFi hotspot on, and then start two apps (a GPS tracker, and a special app that “locks” the GPS logging even if the phone goes to sleep). Without these steps the surface team will be going out without radio contact, and with no video feed or navigation tracking, and that renders MISCON quite useless for the mission.

There will be a checklist of all these steps available in the QM, and it is very important that you follow it to the letter.

Weapons and protective gear

As usual, it is your duty to make sure all batteries for the guns are charged at the beginning of the night shift operations, and that magazines are loaded. You will hand out firearms and magazines, and you will make sure that no one puts a magazine into their rifle until they are outside the bunker.

You will also hand out the protective gear - the goggles or glasses being the most important, then NBC suits and other protective gear. As always, everything handed out needs to be logged.

When a surface team returns you are to make sure all weapons are unloaded, magazines reloaded, and once the night time operations are done you are responsible for charging all the rifle batteries again.

Routine tasks

Making inventory. Going through supplies and the list, checking that everything is where it is supposed to be. If not, you need to find it. Relabel everything that has had its numbers or designation scratched off. If you are running low on something, make a note and take it up with Command during the next meeting (unless it’s critical of course, then contact them immediately).

Registering TAs (temporary assignments) and PNQs (Private, no consequence) for people, so that their ‘belongings’ are legal and that they have the right to keep them.

Handing out work related gear for the shifts - and logging them back in again.

Prepping for missions, see above.

Preparing “wish lists” - things that are desperately missing from the supplies - for Command, for consideration when planning scavenging missions.

Special tasks

Personal projects. You have a lot of personal projects going on; soldering together some electronics project, modifying or repairing gear or reorganizing things.

Finding specific things. Sometimes Intelligence wants to find some obscure PNQ, sometimes Command are looking for things that might not be registered anymore. The QMs are still the people who know the most about where something was seen last, and get to act as detectives for a bit.